A serious plea to all who post here...

[Jim R.]

I realize this may not be obvious to many, but I am blind and use a software program called a screen reader which translates what's on the screen into synthetic speech.  It's a wonderful thing but it does only give me at best, a line at a time view of what's going on, but in truthis really word-by-word or even ccharacter-by-character.

There has been a growing trend on this forum for people to use the "reply with quote" button when replying to a post, and of course then the author also typically posts a few words at the bottom off the post.   That's fine if you can see where the original post ends and the new one starts, but I can't and end up having to read an unbelieveable number of posts over and over and over again, only to get an "I agree" or "that's funny" or similar post at the end.  Often times there is also no paragraph break between the original and the response so I often miss the response altogether unless I back up and read it, which is especially frustrating when it really adds nothing.

Now I'm not saying to stop posting what ever you want, but if folks use the plain old "reply" button, than those short posts are easily skipped over.

Ok, that's my selfish reason for making this request, but on a more universal and practical side, using the basic "reply" function instead of "reply with quote" also makes things easier for other folks, especially those who may be reading from a smart phone, iPod touch or similar mobile device, but perhaps the largest reason is that it saves storage space, and a good amount of it if folks just reply without the quote.

If you are picking up something from the middle of a long thread, of course it is best to give some context to something you are replying to that may be out of sequence by then, but please just edit the post down to the few lines that your response is directed to, and delete the rest.

So many online forums have devolved to the repeated re-posting of previous responses in full, that I really can't even stand to visit themanymore.  I'd really hate to feel forced to cut down my time on the BH forum for the same reason.

Again, sorry, but it has been a growing trend on this forum lately and it's starting to take a toll on my enjoyment of the forum, as I suspect it may be doing for others.

Thanks for listening,

Jim

[Laudanum]

Will do my best, Jim.

[InfernoSTi]

Great suggestion and good practice in general.  I am certain this site will work hard to accomodate your situation....but more importantly to simply be self aware about how they posting.  I'm sure I've done the "reply with quote" only to add a smiley face more times than I would care to admit.

Best,
John

[Grainger49]

I fully understand, Jim.  If I feel the need to reply to something within a post I quote the part I am replying with using elliptical marks before and after.  In other words I try to be concise.

I had no idea your program would spell things to you if it didn't recognize the word.  What a pain!

[Jim R.]

Thanks, Gents -- not trying to point any fingers at anybody in particular, and I do loathe asking for any special accomodations, but this one is pretty important. (and it really can save bandwidth for the site.)

Grainger, no, that's not whow it works but I do have the ability to spell things out (even phonetically if I want) but it is not automatic.  In fact the screen reader does it's best to make sense of all kinds of things.  For example, Shawn P.'s handle is "noskipallwd", which the screen reader pronounces something like, "nah-skih-palb".  It also has a set of names it consistently pronounces oddly -- caleb = cake-ebbb, slovak = slow-cack, greata = freta, etc.  Though for the most part, these specific to the speech synthesizer being used.  Some synthesizers get my Irish name correct, but most don't... most say "see-muss" instead of Shay-muss".

Of course you can also program in exceptions but I only do that when absolutely necessary as too many exceptions can negatively impact response time.

Thanks again,

Jim

[Noskipallwd]

Shawn P.'s handle is "noskipallwd", which the screen reader pronounces something like, "nah-skih-palb".

Jim,
That sounds like a Navajo word, I try to only use a quote when it is essential to understanding my post. When I was researching PMPs before getting the HI-FIMAN, I was reading threads at Head-Fi. It was a PITA, everyone replies with a quote. I don't know how that practice became normal, but it seems to have on a few boards.

Cheers,
Shawn

[John Roman]

Jim,
Seems a completely reasonable request to me. I hope I haven't been abusing this unknowingly. I will gladly respond as you wish.
best regards,
John

[xcortes]

I usually quote only short sentences when needed to maintain perspective but I'll keep this in mind anyways.

Saludos (hmm, how did your reader prononce that?

[Jim R.]

Thanks again, gents -- and yes, Shawn, head-fi is one of those I simply can't deal with anymore.  Again, I didn't write this with any individual in mind, really just a trend that I've seen slowly creeping in over the past few months.  Xavier, it sounds like salad-O's -- maybe something to go with your spaghetti-Os :-).  That's ok, I'm completely used to thigs like that and I really should just program in some exceptions for such things.

-- Jim

[Doc B.]

Head-fi is terrible that way. Every once in a while someone tries to make the point that a thread gets impossible to read with the repetitious full post quotes. But it doesn't seem to do much good. I will add this request to the forum rules. Of course the people who quote full posts might be in the same group as those who don't read forum rules...

[earwaxxer]

Jim - Interesting perspective on our use of technology. I would have never thought of it! Good things to keep in mind in our communications.

[4krow]

Not only in respect to what Jim has said, but I find that in recent years, communication has been clipped more and more. Say what you mean, and Mean what you say. I can also be frustrated with customers who simply aren't self aware, and read my emails half heartedly and then assume the rest. Jim is on the other end of this scale, and has to comb responses just to see if they are even valid.